I'm a Fellow at the Adam Smith Institute in London, a writer here and there on this and that and strangely, one of the global experts on the metal scandium, one of the rare earths. An odd thing to be but someone does have to be such and in this flavour of our universe I am. I have written for The Times, Daily Telegraph, Express, Independent, City AM, Wall Street Journal, Philadelphia Inquirer and online for the ASI, IEA, Social Affairs Unit, Spectator, The Guardian, The Register and Techcentralstation. I've also ghosted pieces for several UK politicians in many of the UK papers, including the Daily Sport.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc, the world’s largest retailer, squelched an internal investigation into allegations of bribery at its Mexican subsidiary instead of broadening the probe, the New York Times reported on Saturday.

The Times said that in September 2005, a senior Wal-Mart lawyer received an e-mail from Sergio Cicero Zapata, a former executive at the company’s largest foreign unit, Wal-Mart de Mexico, describing how the subsidiary had paid bribes to obtain permits to build stores in the country.

Wal-Mart sent investigators to Mexico City and found a paper trail of hundreds of suspect payments totaling more than $24 million, but the company’s leaders then shut down the investigation and notified neither U.S. nor Mexican law enforcement officials, the Times reported.

Felix Salmon follows this up with a look at what this means for Wal-Mart’s banking subsidiary in that country.

David Barstow’s explosive 7,600-word investigation of corruption at Wal-Mart is required reading this weekend. I’m not going to attempt to summarize the whole thing, but basically Eduardo Castro-Wright, currently Wal-Mart’s vice-chairman, oversaw a culture of bribery when he was CEO of Walmex. And when a key player in that bribery scheme blew the whistle, Walmart in Bentonville buried the investigation, and didn’t report anything to the authorities in either Mexico or the US.

All of this looks like a slam-dunk case under Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, and I’m quite sure that multiple extremely senior heads are going to roll in the wake of this NYT exposé. As always in such cases, the crime was bad; the cover-up was worse.

One name, however, is conspicuous by its absence in Barstow’s report: Banco Wal-Mart, the huge bank which is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Walmex. It’s a serious player in the Mexican banking industry — it opened its millionth account over a year ago — and thanks to a quirk of international banking-regulation protocols, it lacks a lot of the regulation that its competitors have.

Yes, I’m aware of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and have had to deal with it in my time. I’ve also had to deal with the much more recently introduced Bribery Act in my native UK as well. Just as I’ve dealt with bribery back when it was legal for an Englishman to be so involved. Back when bribes paid were actually tax deductible for an English company. And that again is, to my mind, simply a hard headed admission that other places sometimes do things in ways that we would not tolerate at home.

Mr Deripaska’s admission, made in an exclusive interview with The Sunday Telegraph, casts light on the murky world in which oligarchs operated – and made their fortunes – in post-Soviet Russia. ….. In a candid interview, Mr Deripaska said he paid protection money to criminal gangs. He also built up his own security unit of former KGB agents and Red Army soldiers, as well as paying the local police for protection.

A source close to Mr Deripaska said that he was forced to pay gangs to stop his staff being threatened.

“The payments are called krysha, money paid to protect clients. It literally means roof in Russian. You are paying to protect your roof,” the source said.

Mr Deripaska said: “The first time I was directly threatened … two weeks later my commercial director was shot two times in the head. This was how, finally, I decided it was better to pay for the moment to stay alive and for my people to stay alive.”

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I spent a lot of time in the 1980′s in Mexico on business, and I think everything in Mexico is corrupt. Corruption is the way of life in Mexico. The same is true of some other South American countries.

Excuse me, but your whole point is totally moronic. You’re into making a buck so badly you support criminal activities by doing business in countries where governments allows this stuff to happen? What’s the matter with you! Saying criminal activity is business as usual is taking it in the rear for your business. I think we shut down mobsters for the very same thing. A business climate and a moral one are two different things and it’s clear you don’t care how many fleas you wake up with if the dogs hand you a check. And you don’t want laws to exists that helps stop this activity – hmm, you on the killers’ payroll? Sounds like it.

The problem with the opinion show the lack of morality, integrity and ethics in the corporate and governmental world. I am old school and am appalled by the actions of Wal-Mart and other corporations who give in to bribery. When one person takes a stand, others will follow. Your opinion just adds acceptance. I come from another view point.

Completely agree. If not Wal-Mart Carrefour or Target or another large mega-retailer would have jumped into the market. The NY Times should refocus their ink and reporting elsewhere. This story will not change business practices in Mexico one iota.

Of course you were not working for WMT during the period in question, where the CEO and legal department drummed compliance and put out videos re. honesty. What a joke, I have never seen such hypocrisy.

Castro-Wright via his bribe machine defrauded shareholders in WMT. The growth in Mexico was the basis for shareholder confidence, both individual and institutional. The reasons for not exposing the bribery were purely financial. Let’s see if the “market” punishes WMT in Mexico, I doubt it. What other countries has WMT bribed its way into market dominance? Meanwhile Tom Hyde is just a skiing fool. Ha ha ha.

Corruption in Mexico?? oh thats only from racist America putting down the brown.. whats a little meth or a few bags of pot.. whats wrong with a few people hooked on herion.. gees get over it..its the latino way.. just look how nice mexico and other cesspools south .. just wait until I get that “dream act” so I can bring ALL OF MY FAMILY..and our culture..to your neighborhood..well the neighborhood your holding for us..as soon it will be OUR neighborhood.. why? because Americans are to stupid to stop us..

The best reaction I have seen all day. So what? This should also be the reaction to the Secret Service prostitution scandal and Army troops posing with body parts. We act like we know what war is like, or what it is like to do business in Mexico. I think the media is at fault for making these things “scandals” in the absence of real news, and we are just as bad for watching it. Finally someone with the guts to say, so what ! Thank you.